You
could be easily forgiven for mistaking La Truffière
for one of these Paris gastronomic restaurants geared towards tourists.
It is bang in the Mouffetard
tourist district and yes, on evenings the average client does not speak
much French. But many discerning Parisian gastronomes eat there as
well, especially at lunch, and
the well-heeled international clientele they get is a consequence of
consistent good reviews from serious French restaurant guides. Gault
Millau just raised them to 15 and they hope to get a Michelin star.
They
probably also have cosy relations with concierges in Paris 5 star
hotels.

The wine cellar
at la Truffière is renowned and one of the biggest in any Paris restaurant, with over 15,000
bottles. Monsieur
Martin, the sommelier,
spends his vacation touring châteaux and participates in national wine
tastings. He can get you anything from excellent wine by the glass to a
€10,000 century-old Yquem. Some people dine there just for the fine.
But I go for the truffle
soufflé.

I
try to eat at la Truffière at least once a year and always take truffle soufflé for dessert. Yes, an underground mushroom in
the dessert. On the menu it says Le Soufflé Chaud à la Truffe Mélanosporum, Grand Marnier - Black Truffle Mélanosporum Soufflé with Orange Brandy Liqueur. If they have a dessert menu in heaven, the truffle soufflé must be on it.

The
delicate flavor of the truffle mixed with the orange Grand Marnier has
been haunting me since I ate my last soufflé. Naturally, when last week
I bought two black truffles from one my local 3 Michelin stars
restaurants, it ocurred to me that I could try to make the truffle
soufflé at home.
But how? Soufflé is hard enough to make not to take any chance of ruining one of my
beloved truffles. I decided to ring the restaurant up and ask.
Christophe, the Truffière's pastry chef, kindly explained that the
soufflé is based on a crême pâtissière flavored with truffle honey and
Grand Marnier. 'If you don't have truffle honey', he said, 'just add 50gr more sugar and extra truffle'. He kindly waited on the phone while I was jotting down the information, then volunteered 'Do you want the recipe for the crême pâtissière?'. What a nice man. Here is his recipe.

1. Clean your truffle, the peel it carefully and put the peel aside
for later use. Put the truffle back in the fridge in a tightly closed
jar with some uncooked rice.

2. Make the crême pâtissière by mixing half the sugar, maizena and
milk in a saucepan and heat until it boils, then immediately remove
from fire and add truffle peel. In a separate bowl beat remaining
caster sugar with egg yolks until white, then beat in some of the milk.
Pour bowl into the warm milk, off the stove. Beating constantly, warm
until the mixture spread over a spoon keeps a clear trace of a finger
passed trough it, about 85°C. Don't let it boil or it will turn into a
custard. Immediately pour it off the saucepan into a bowl which you
will place in a bath of cold water with some ice cubes to both stop the
egg yolk from coagulating further and drop the cream temperature
outside the bacteria friendly range. As the cream reaches about 50C°,
fold in the butter and mix until smooth. Dont put the butter too soon
and don't melt it separately or the cream will split and that's not
fair on the truffle.

Right before using it,
pass through a sieve to remove coagulated yolks and the truffle skins.

3. Beat the egg whites until they become very hard. If they are
runny, you can't make soufflé so cry, get new eggs and start again.
Only use egg whites with absolutely no trace of egg yolk or other
impurities in them. A copper bowl will help or use a few drops of lemon
to help. Good luck!

4. Heat your oven to 190C°. Carefully grate the truffle in the crême
pâtissière. Delicately and slowly fold the beaten egg whites into the
cream. Be gentle or the million little air bubbles trapped in the egg
whites will disappear and your soufflé will be gone.

5. Put the soufflés at the bottom of the oven and leave for about 10
minutes or as long as it takes for a nice brown crust to appear on top.
The hotter the oven, the faster they will rise. The faster they rise,
the faster they come down. These are the hard rules of soufflé
making.

Sorry I could not shoot pictures of the Crême Pâtissière preparation. Crême pâtissière is normally used to fill a cornucopia of
pastries
such as millefeuille or choux à la crême. It is very much sought after
by bacterias so don't keep it for more than 12 hours and cover it at
all times. Pierre Hermé recommends putting melted butter on the
surface to prevent any crusting.